Sunday and Monday were very lazy days. Steve got out for a little fishing in is tube and took some pictures. Our site is on the far left in this shot...

Cabins are at the far end of the lake...

It was such a calm morning...the lake is as flat as glass...Steve had a few bites but that's all...

I read most of the day...and just relaxed, chasing some shade.

Monday, after out usual start to the day, Steve turned on the generator so I could vacuum...yeah, a little house cleaning is needed once in a while! While I was doing that, Steve took a quad up the hill to find a cell signal so that he could call Jubilee RV in Kamloops and confirm our appointment to have the front jacks motor replaced. After a frustrating 40 minutes where he kept loosing the cell signal..and/or Peter wasn't available, he returned...he'll go back later and try again.

So, as you can see, it was a pretty relaxing day in the beautiful sunshine....

Mid afternoon, he left me reading out in the shade and went off again to have another go at talking to Peter at Jubilee RV. He was back much quicker this time. All was set...since we would be camping in their lot overnight, Peter didn't want us there until just before they closed at 5:00. The work would be done Wednesday morning and we would be back at Paska Lake that afternoon. We had talked to Debbie, the campground facilitator here, telling her what we had to do and asked if it would be okay to leave a few things in the site and then return, staying until after the long weekend (Monday, August 4 is BC Day and a stat holiday here in BC). She had absolutely no problem with that...although there is a 14 day maximum stay in the campgrounds, it is not strictly enforced in the less busier campgrounds. Perfect! That way we don't have to worry about finding another spot prior to the long weekend...and besides, we love it here!

Tuesday morning we were in no great rush, so slowly got things packed up. Steve didn't want to leave the quads unattended at the campsite so loaded them back into the truck. We gradually got things all ready for travel, leaving our chairs, the satellite dish and the tablecloth on the picnic table behind so that people would know the site was occupied...we had also already paid for 3 additional nights.

It was shortly after noon when we headed up the hill out of the campground. Instead of heading directly to Kamloops, though, we turned west on hwy 97D towards Logan Lake...we decided to use their sani-dump to empty our holding tanks. We came across some "wildlife" on Paska Lake Road...after a toot from our air horn, they were soon off the road...

Down we go into Kamloops...that's the Thompson River in the distance...

We found our way to Walmart, where I spent a couple of hours shopping. Steve came in for a bit and then decided to go back out to the truck to catch up on the blogs he follows, since we now have internet. By the time I came out, he had just about totally melted in the heat. Since we still had some time to kill before going to Jubilee RV, we went and sat in a nice air-conditioned McDonalds inside Walmart. We had a cold drink and took advantage of their WiFi.

We arrived at Jubilee RV shortly after 4:30 and after Peter told us where we could park, we unhitched from the truck. As we were lowering the front jacks to level off, all of a sudden there was a ratcheting sound...the right front jack was slipping, wouldn't hold the weight....great! Well, at least it picked a good place for this to happen! Could this be why the motor has been so laboured lately?We ended up getting out the 6-ton bottle jack out (thanks, Ray and Deb for lending it to us!) and after jacking it up, Steve lowered the landing gear a bit more, trying to level it off with the left side....when he lowered the bottle jack, though, the jack slipped again...it wasn't going to hold. Consequently, he left the bottle jack in place.

See the difference...

It was so hot...temps in the mid 30's C (90's F)! And even hotter inside the trailer...so Steve brought out our chairs and we sat outside.

Here is our camping spot....unfortunately they didn't have power available for us...

It was so hot and the trailer didn't cool off much that night....making it pretty rough trying to sleep. After a night of tossing and turning, I got up at 6:00...Steve wasn't far behind me.

We had everything put away and the slides in shortly after 7:30 so I took the laptop over to a picnic table set up by the sales office and worked our blog. About 8:15, Steve saw Peter (although he arrives at work by 7:30, work doesn't start until 8:30) so he went over and got the paperwork done. Shortly after, the forklift came and took our fifth-wheel over to a service bay.

And we went to Mt. Paul Golf Course for breakfast (recommended by Peter)...a very busy little place!

And a beautiful spot!

After breakfast, we were off to Costco...time to stock up....which is a good thing...except I cringed at the amount spent! It certainly doesn't take much to rack up a high bill there! Oh well...

While we were in Costco, Peter called....the right front jack needs to be replaced. The part is in Vancouver and will be here tomorrow...well, that's better news than we were expecting! Once I was finished at Costco, we headed back to Jubilee RV. Our fifth-wheel was still in the service bay but they let us put our groceries in it...with this heat, there were a few items that needed to go in the fridge/freezer.

The service tech is showing Steve the broken jack...

We sat back at the picnic table for awhile. Steve was researching things to do in Kamloops...let's go see a little of Kamloops while we are here. So we set off in search of a riverside trail...maybe we can get a little exercise. I took a few pictures along the way....

This is The Old Courthouse Cultural Centre...

We're just approaching the Interior Savings Centre, the centrepiece of sport and entertainment facilities in Kamloops and home of the Kamloops Blazers WHL hockey team...

We ended up finding Riverside Park and found a parking spot (big enough for us) on the road a few blocks away..

Interior Savings Centre...

Walkway over the railroad tracks...

Riverside Park is a gorgeous spot on the banks of the Thompson River...

Look at the size of that Weeping Willow tree!

We are at the North Thompson River where it joins with the South Thompson River straight ahead...

We were at the park almost 2 hours...we sat in shade, then wandered along the riverfront for a bit...and sat some more. It was such a beautiful...and popular...spot.

Back at Jubilee RV, we found our fifth-wheel had been taken outside to the other side of the service bay. We would be spending the night there....and we would also have electricity, so we would be able to run the air conditioner....bonus!

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the cool comfort of the trailer...Steve edited pictures and then I worked on the blog while Steve got caught up on the blogs he follows. The part is expected to be here around noon tomorrow...so we should be on our way back to Paska Lake late afternoon...fingers crossed!

Friday started off cool (4.6C/40F) and foggy...rather eerie looking over the lake...

We decided to drive into Logan Lake again today...with the cold weather, we have had the propane heater on a lot, therefore going through a lot of propane. We might as well fill up the fresh water containers as well. So just before 11:30, we were on our way. Again, Steve dropped me off at the hotel and I went into the coffee shop to work on the blog. A short while later, Steve joined me in the coffee shop. After finishing and posting our blog update, we stayed for a little while longer, catching up on email, banking, etc. We were back home around 2:30...to find a lot more campers had joined us in the campground. They must have heard the great weather forecast for the weekend!

Craving sunshine, we sat outside...there were still clouds hanging around but at least the sun was coming through for the most part. We stayed out until about 6:00 and then headed inside...Steve watched the evening news while I got things ready for dinner. After dinner, we settled in for an evening of TV...and reading.

Saturday....Sunshine! We woke to clear blue skies this morning. The weather forecast is back to warm temperatures over the next week (at least)...back to summer...yay!

At 10:00 we were all ready. Time to get out and do a little exploring of the area on our quads...

Yikes!

Wyse Lake...

A little mud to go through....

See the square hole carved into the tree on the left?

Our first geocache of the day found at Wyse Lake...

You want me to cross that and come down there?

That's me with my...where the hell are you taking me face!

And now a log bridge....well, more like a bunch of logs thrown across a boggy spot...

And there I am in the mud again....

Now we are at Roper Lake...and on the hunt for another geocache....

Found it!

This is the far end of Dominic Lake...

...and another geocache...

We took a short ride into Dominic Lake Resort...it's for sale, so we thought we'd take a look...

Grace Lake nearby...Face Lake in the distance below the horizon on right...

Forest Fire Lookout on Greenstone Mountain Peak... Dianne by the quads on the right...

Tunkwa and Leighton Lakes in the distance where we camped with Earl and Allison a few weeks ago...

Kamloops in the distance...

Towers in the distance on top of Mount Savona where we rode with Earl and Allison a few weeks ago...

Kamloops Lake...

And a couple of panorama shots (remember, you can click any picture to enlarge)...

After lunch, it was time to head off in search of more geocaches on the mountain....

The container on this one was left open and was full of rain water...

Kamloops Lake...

This one took forever to find. It was 40' away from the co-ordinates...

And here we are at the final geocache...that's the campground in the distance...

We were back at 3:15...a little over 5 hours, 42 km and we picked up 12 geocaches along the way. After unloading the quads and changing into shorts and flip-flops, it was time to relax in the sunshine.

Banff

About Us

We married in 1982 and our sons, Rob and Chris were born in 1983 and 1985. In 1990 we built our dream home in North Saanich just north of Victoria BC on 1.21 acres. We both had long careers, Dianne in Human Resources and Steve as Branch Manager for a controls systems wholesaler.
Steve always felt that there were no guarantees in life as far as health and mortality went, so we planned to retire early and RV full-time.
In late 2009 we began the build process on our custom Toy Hauler truck, taking delivery in early 2010. We moved into our new Montana 5th wheel in Feb 2010, living in it for 4 months while still working. In May 2010 we purchased 2 Yamaha Grizzly 550 ATVs. We're ready!
Just shy of our 55th birthdays, on June 25, 2010 we retired and started our life as gypsies.
We prefer dry camping (boondocking), getting as far away from civilization as possible. However, our size limits us from getting into all of those remote areas. Good thing we have the ATVs to explore with.